Jennifer A. Hudson

Your Hand*

Silently I admired your hand
while it drew a blade through
lush kiwis and crisp fuji apples,
pulped some passion fruit,
then handed me the bowl.
Silently I admired your hand
as it stroked and breathed
soft tan and green tones into an
expanse of blue like ink
corresponded our souls in alphabet soup.

If only your hand
could have stroked my earthy tones
and delved into my ripened core,
I’d have tasted your letters
all the way down.

*First appeared in the 2009 edition of The Broken Plate, p. 61.


Silence is neither Golden nor Elemental

Our reticent words are murmurs in the wind
nestling inside yellow-downed indigo petals.

They’re the howls of livid waters behind
floodgates that don’t give way to spill,

and the crackles of ravenous sienna fangs
driven off by back burning.

These unvoiced echoes hover like mist in shadows,
and fade in the rising moon’s fullness
where you no longer are.


Judgment (or God is a woman)

Under the pink of the studio lamp
fiery hues explode on a backdrop
of burgundy and plum. I pat your cheeks,
the scarlet around your neck, and your breasts
—do I dare brush such full and ripened fruit?

A drop of flesh tone leaks onto the floor;
guilt’s jarring echo nooses in my ear.
My stomach twists to the bass of my heart,
and my cheeks flush at my soul strings’ wail.

You step down, a jaguar to its prey.
Your lips part, an utterance emerges:
“The tone is way off!”

My Paradise…
lost.


About the Author

Jennifer A. Hudson is a poet, essayist, fiction writer, activist and budding visual artist. She published her first poem at age eight in The Bridgeport Post in her hometown of Bridgeport, CT. Since then Ms. Hudson's work has appeared in Dark Lady Poetry, The Helix, The Broken Plate, Eleutheria: The Scottish Poetry Review, Nefarious Ballerina, Essence, and Sage Woman. Her poem “Golden Malice” was a finalist for the 2009 Rita Dove Poetry Award. When not writing, she enjoys painting, drawing, photography, playing tambourine, traveling and delighting in nature's beauty. Ms. Hudson lives in Fairfield County, CT with her husband, Michael, and retreats to Woodstock often. Readers can visit her at http://jenniferahudsonwriter.blogspot.com

(click here to close this window)